Bandai Goes Crazy with Announcements

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The .hack people reveal their lineup for 2004.

By Jeremy Dunham

It's not often that a videogame company tells the general public about its upcoming titles before it tells the press, but apparently that approach was all part of Bandai's master plan of attack: to take us all by surprise. And that's exactly what it did when it announced a slew of new games over the weekend through its exclusive trade show newsletter, Bandai Magazine.

Lupin the 3rd: Treasure of the Sorcerer King One of the few games in the newsletter that was already announced, Lupin the 3rd is best described as a stealthy action/adventure in the vein of Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid. Players will be able to assume the roles of Lupin, Goemon, or Jigen, and will feature original CGI cut scenes created specifically for the game with voice-overs from the same actors that perform on the television show. (PS2 - February 2004)

RibbitKing A new way to play golf (called "frolf"), RibbitKing has an unusual premise: launch a frog into the air and get him in the hole under par. Not as sadistic as it sounds, this frolf simulator will feature 10 different characters (including a duck and a one-eyed palm tree monster), 20 varied levels, and 5 diverse planets. Story mode and four-player versus play is also expected. (GCN, PS2 - May 2004)

Digimon Rumble Arena 2 The sequel to the PSOne best-seller, Rumble Arena 2 is a four-player Smash Bros.-style fighter that boasts more than 40 different monsters, plenty of multiplayer modes, secret characters, and personalities from all four seasons of the television show. While not officially announced for the PS2, the advertisement hints very strongly at the possibility. (GCN, PS2, Xbox - June 2004)

InuYasha RPG Following the events of A Feudal Fairy Tale rather closely, the InuYasha RPG will sport more than 20 minutes of anime footage made specifically for the videogame (in addition to featuring characters made especially for the game as well) with little else known about it. With the RPG InuYasha: The Mask of Juso scheduled for Japanese release in March, however, we're going to go ahead and speculate that the games are one in the same (just call us the Nostradamus of the videogame world baby!). (PS2 - July 2004)

Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy Developed by the wrestling game experts at Aki, Ultimate Muscle has more than 40 different wrestlers, six different gaming modes (including tag team, battle royale, 5 vs. 5 group, etc), seven different arenas, and four-player simultaneous action via the multi-tap. Still no word yet on whether or not this is a port of last year's GameCube title or if it's an all-new game made especially for the PlayStation 2. (PS2 - July 2004)

Digimon World 4 There's almost no information on Digimon World 4 at all, except for the fact that Bandai has officially announced it in the calendar section of its newsletter; though it goes without saying that you can expect the same classic monster battles that's powered the other games in the series. (GCN, PS2, Xbox - August 2004)

SD Gundam Force Bandai's action beat-em up Superior Defender Gundam Force will allow gamers to play as Captain Gundam, Zero the Winged Knight, and Musha Bakunetsumaru as they battle their way through three different worlds. Little else is known at this time. (PS2 - September 2004)

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Released in Japan last July, Gundam Seed is the next in the long line of Bandai action games. Similar in mechanics to last year's Encounters in Space, Seed will feature characters and situations from the television show that debuted in October. Supposedly will appear on "Next Generation Consoles" (GCN, PS2, Xbox - October 2004)

Cowboy Bebop Included solely on the back page as part of the newsletter's release calendar, the Cowboy Bebop game is a total mystery and there's no word yet on what kind of title it will be. But hunger is the best spice as they say. Interestingly enough, it was quietly announced at the last Comic-Con. Apparently nobody was listening. (PS2 - October 2004)

Mobile Suit Z-Gundam: A.E.U.G. vs. Titans A big hit in Japan and incredibly slick-looking, this graphics-intensive actioner turned some heads when it was released last month. Bandai will take almost a year to translate it for America, so expect it to follow the dubbed American version very closely. (PS2 - November 2004)

Z-Gundam pretty much ended Bandai's slew of announcements, but several of our sources in Japan have been hinting that the company could still have even more coming to America this year. We'll keep you updated as we learn more.